I spent the last two days at the Crane Strategic Communications Conference. Yesterday’s highlight was a guest speaker that talked about diversity. We normally get guest speakers that are fellow government weenies that believe their purpose in life is to remind us of the importance of public policy as the panacea for injustice. Luckily, yesterday’s speaker was not one of us. He was a diversity guru and an engaging speaker, which is a quality in short supply at most government conferences. The purpose of this gentleman’s lecture was to encourage us to step beyond our comfort zone to engage folks that look, act, or think differently than us. One point in particular really struck me because it resonated on a spiritual level also. He was describing unintentional intolerance, which is the bias we carry with us that we don’t realize we carry. He had an equation to describe how we build these intolerances, which went over big since the entire group is pretty much all scientists and engineers. The equation is:
Unintentional tolerance = mindlessness + multiple redundant messages
Mindlessness is how we react when we don’t consciously think things through. He described it as the cognitive script we run without thinking, similar to our heartbeat or breathing. This script is created by our experiences or lack of experiences.
Multiple redundant messages are the things that are imprinted upon us by repetition like TV commercials. They become part of our thinking over time without us consciously putting forth the effort to do so. For my generation, I believe this is exemplified by the Oscar Meyer wiener song. After you hear it a few thousand times, it’s in your brain for life.
So, what does this mean to me as a Christian? What mindless things am I doing that are blinding me to what God wants me to see? Where am I allowing my cognitive script to run instead of perceiving the truth of the situation I’m in and reacting as the person God needs me to be? What redundant things am I doing simply out of comfort or habit? Where do I need to make changes to rationally consider where I am and how I should respond?
